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Sunday, August 13, 2017

Reacting During Limited Computer Access: Nazis? I Hate These Guys

I haven't seen much coverage of the Nazi in Charlotteville, as internet access has been intermittent. However, I have seen enough to be disgusted and impressed and confused, mostly confused. Disgusted that these hateful assholes are getting any benefit from the various false equivalence machines. Impressed by those who are protesting despite much risk to themselves.

And confused: should we make fun of the douchebros? Should we post memes reminding us all that the Americans died to defeat Nazism? Should we keep in mind that the US was built on white supremacy in its purest form--slavery? Is it UnAmerican to carry flags with the swastika on them despite the US history of racism? The answer to all these questions is the same: hells yes.

We should:

mock these guys. We should diminish them as their cause is pathetic. That whites are now sharing more and more power and resources and privilege with non-whites is a good thing--that makes the US a better place to live, a stronger economy, and all the rest. These douchebros are not oppressed. They just fear that those who gain more power might abuse it as these guys have and would--the problem of projecting too much.

remember US history--the good stuff and the bad. Yes, the US helped to defeat the Nazis (via a coalition, by the way). It is one of the best things the US has ever done if the US did it slowly and reluctantly at first. The US could have chosen Nazism in the 1930s, but turned away from that, from America Firsters and the rest. But as Obama kept saying, the history of America is an effort to perfect the union--which still suffers from the legacies of slavery, which still incubates white supremacy and other forms of hate, and which still gives too much cover to the allies of the hateful.

We, indeed, have an administration full of white supremacists from Sessions to Bannon to Miller to Trump. These folks and their incitement have given the douchebros of white supremacy the confidence to come out and voice their hate. How to counter that? Other than eventually defeating Trump, we need to call out the white supremacy. Fuck this white nationalism, alt-right bullshit--if they adopt Nazi slogans and symbols, then let's call them Nazis with no modifiers. Let's remember what the Nazis wrought not just to neighboring countries to but to Germany itself--utter destruction. Let's remember their targets: Jews, gays, the left, the disabled, and on and on. While Islamophobes may find the Trump's islamophobia appealing, the brown Islamophobes should keep in mind that white supremacy is for whites only. Eventually, the non-white Islamophobes will be treated the same as all non-whites.

The good news is that we have Republicans heaping much scorn on the Nazis. The bad news is that, as both George RR Martin and Brett Freidman would say, words are wind. We should pressure Congress to put more $ and more investigations into fighting white supremacist terrorism. Let's get Orrin Hatch, John McCain, and the others to put money where their mouths are.

Oh, and let's drop the whole bullshit that the Dems lose because they play with identity politics. White identity politics is white supremacy politics, something that both parties have played with but one party now relies so very heavily on it that their President refuses to clearly condemn the white supremacists.

Hopefully, this will all be resolved by the time our ship docks, but I doubt it.

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Stephen M. Saideman

Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist, specializing in International Relations, my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations. I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.